Talking Heads

Just take the money and relax.

Seems like they all have money and are relaxing.

Since none of us know more than what the members of Talking Heads have said publicly, it’s likely there’s other issues at play. We’re not entitled to know what those issues are any more than we’re entitled to a reunion of people who personally dislike each other and/or otherwise wouldn’t enjoy said reunion.

On the one hand, I'd love to see a reunion tour.

On the other hand, it would probably be sad and uninspired. I'd be thinking the whole time of the chance I passed up in high school (ca. 1982) to see them at Red Rocks.

yeah as much as i'd love to shell out $200+ to sit at an arena and watch 4 people in their 70s some of whom hate each other sleepwalk through the greatest hits i'm fine with them choosing not to do that

backstage? more like still not talking heads

I don’t remember the context, but I’d gone my entire life assuming that Wordy was a send-up of Crosseyed, and a kind of cruel bit of idk “intellect shaming”, that much of that TTC album was made from a place of intense bitterness about Remain In Light

And then I saw a more-recent (90s? 00s?) interview where Weymouth was talking in measured and palpably rehearsed terms about how the lyrical genesis for Wordy came when she was walking down the beach and just contemplating “words” as a concept, and it felt so… remediary? Like she was trying to “oh, no, how silly of you all to think I was making fun of David” at that moment.

It could just be all my own interpretations and projections but I didn’t like it! and if Byrne is not-so-desirous about a reunion, combined with that Heads stuff, I’m not at all surprised I guess

i don't get the impression that byrne was totally innocent or anything but frantz & weymouth have been so publicly vicious regarding him for decades that i can hardly blame him for not wanting anything to do with them, especially when he seems comfortable enough with his solo career

i'd absolutely go see a reunion show but i wouldn't really have much in the way of expectations and the r&r hof set 20 years ago was pretty dire.

A year or two back I saw Harrison/Belew perform Remain In Light en totale (with Turkuaz filling in for the rest of the band) and it was wayyyyy better than anticipated. Adrian is such an absolute godhead, an absolute thrilling musician to watch. Harrison sang so much that it made me reconsider that a lot of the vocals on RIM seem to be a blend of David/Jerry/Eno layered on top of each other. He was not just aping the songs, he really was singing them as if they were his songs (nb: I never saw TH in their peak artistic period).

Yeah I literally texted earlier tonight that I felt that Belew’s stint with TH was the finest collab in his long career of fine collabs

I would add "Genius Of Love" to the above which seems fair.

Unless Byrne finds out he's lost all of his money in a Ponzi scheme, I doubt a reunion will ever happen.

The idea that The Field Mice could make bazillions of dollars by reforming is entertaining.

Inner sleeve of the Heads' album is fun
https://i.discogs.com/4w_sjLhgdJ9erjyaA7UIwh791ErRPtgEisEzbVOwfMk/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:592/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTM4NzY3/OS0xNDg1Nzk4MDcw/LTg4NzAuanBlZw.jpeg

Cover connection
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/718hsTLSqlL._UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg

Wow that is ugly

Lol JiC

yea I've heard that Harrison/Belew show ruled and from the clips i've seen it's way better than any TH reunion would be

https://variety.com/2023/music/news/david-byrne-regrets-talking-heads-split-little-tyrant-1235698801/?fbclid=IwAR1P0_hmGNzXS0mZZxGd1lOx3yelv3iGZTX0MyKDPQ_Ie7y-N0cLDglR92k

“I think [the end] wasn’t handled well,” he concluded. “It was kind of ugly.”

The other members of the group — cofounders Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth (who are married) and keyboardist-guitarist Jerry Harrison — have spoken out often about Byrne’s behavior; Frantz in particular took several shots at him in the 2020 memoir “Remain in Love.” He has long said that he read in a newspaper that Byrne had decided to leave the band, after nearly 20 years and eight albums.

Byrne says now, “I have regrets on how that was handled. I don’t think I did it in the best way, but I think it was kind of inevitable that would happen anyway,” he says. “We have a cordial relationship now. We’re sort of in touch, but we don’t hang out together.”

I feel like Byrne has delivered more than his fair share of mea culpas at this point...

"Mistakes were made"

I mean it's not like someone was murdered

i feel like frantz/weymouth have always been like "david sucks, we hate him! why won't he reunite the band???"

they should put together a documentary though.

I've always thought Tina was cool af, since their first appearance on SNL. Chris, on the other hand, seems like a dolt.

over the last 5 years byrne's career seems to be about as big as its ever been post-TH, even without the acrimony its hard to imagine he'd want to spend his remaining summers plodding through "take me to the river" at festival gigs.

the rrhof performance was the final nail in the coffin for me with that stuff, it was really terrible, i wouldnt leave the house to see the 20-years-older version of that band doing the same songs.

I've always thought Tina was cool af, since their first appearance on SNL. Chris, on the other hand, seems like a dolt.

― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux)

She's cool af when addressing anything unrelated to David Byrne, at which point she's unendurable.

The American Utopia show Byrne has been touring was a tons of fun when I saw it a couple of years ago. I don't have any desire to see a TH reunion show.

I saw the American Utopia concert film, directed by Spike Lee, recently - and the show was clearly tremendous! A Talking Heads concert couldn't really equal it, except that it would feature Talking Heads.

Byrne was still fairly active in the American Utopia shows, but compared to his 2009/2010 tours, he's noticeably dialed it back for himself. He has so many other dancers involved in his shows that it's not a big deal, but it does remind me that a Talking Heads reunion would really look its age at this point when it's just the four of them onstage. (The Remain in Light celebrations from this year benefitted with so many younger performers dancing on stage.)

LCD Soundsystem touring American Dream was a good Talking Heads reunion

"frantz & weymouth have been so publicly vicious regarding him for decades"

byrne's (maybe recent? not sure) disclosure that he has asperger's makes them look even worse, though I don't doubt that working with him was frustrating. but you'd think they'd have gotten over it by now.

Was Byrne really any worse than any other difficult frontman?

American Utopia was amazing in part because it was on par with Stop Making Sense, rather than in its shadow. Just as Stop Making Sense has Robert Wilson’s influence all over it, American Utopia felt like (and maybe was) an Ivo Van Hove stage concept from start to finish.

I saw American Utopia on tour before it hit broadway (and I saw the filmed version) and both of them were 1000x more joyful than I imagine a Talking Heads show would be now.

Just picturing Leroy and Asa spending the rest of their lives complaining about Jonathan Richman, say.

byrne's (maybe recent? not sure) disclosure that he has asperger's makes them look even worse, though I don't doubt that working with him was frustrating. but you'd think they'd have gotten over it by now.

Huh. I must be the only one meh about American Utopia.

I just love this band too much. I hope this q&a means they’ve buried the hatchet and are willing to give it another go. Or not, it’s not like I’d have a chance to see them live anyways. If they just exist in more amicable terms it makes me happy.

There’s been plenty of amazing albums coming out in the past years from bands that had been paused for decades. A new Talking Heads album with them reunited would’ve a dream come true, even if it sucked which I doubt it would.

It wouldn’t be worse than Little Creatures

Yes it would.

American Utopia tour was pretty good.

American Utopia the album was solid meh.

This Bandsplain episode dropped today as well:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2LPd0Z7aUE3Wae2lvesObK?si=loX-7oI-TA-BVKBCuuljKw

i think a reunion tour could be good if byrne & frantz/weymouth were able to tolerate each other (unlike the r&r hof show where byrne seemed to be loathing it and unusually for him just going through the motions) and they had a proper extended lineup - get belew, steve scales, a second keyboard player, some backing vocalists, etc.

but even if that somehow actually happened, i'd have to think the chances of a new album would remain zero and chances of one being any good would be even less. it wouldn't possibly be better than even true stories.

Lol why do you all think it would suck. Byrne still releases some good things now and then and I’m not sure if the last Tom Tom Club thing was that EP from like a decade ago but there were good things in there too.

I think it was Trey Anastasio who said that getting back together with Phish was like "putting on a used condom." Of course, he then got back together with Phish.

I think it was Trey Anastasio who said after David Byrne said "It's only the river. It's only the river."

I can't think of a context in which Byrne as solo writer would interest me, let alone in Talking Heads, a band I revere for its curiosity about other music.

byrne's solo career has been inconsistent at best, and their creative process as a band was based around jamming together. i don't think there's any possibility they'd be on the same page enough or have anything close to that chemistry back in order to make anything work with new material at all.

Also they'd probably fall out over money

T/S: used condoms vs clean jerks

So kind of just like the VU then.
(xp)